On, April 23rd, all juniors will be taking the ACTs. I know students will have a lot of nerves and emotions…so I am here with some advice from Mrs. Jessie Van De Walle, a School Improvement Leader at NHS.

Q: How would you explain the ACTs?
Mrs.Van De Walle: “The ACTs are really a college prepared exam, its supposed to see how well you are doing in school.”

Q: Which out of ITBS, SAT, ACTs is the worst (hardest to you)?
A: “Its been a while since I’ve taken them, but I didn’t like the ACTs and this is why, in my school they didn’t offer them to all of the 11th graders, so I had to get up at 5:00 in the morning to get ready and drive to Ames, which was a good 30 minutes from my house and I had to navigate down Iowa state university which I had never done before. But other then that it wasn’t that bad.”

Q: Do you think the test that you did take were easy or hard?
A: “They were hard and they were challenging like they were supposed to be, they were out of the grasp of what I was prepared for.”

Q: What advice would you give to the Juniors that are taking the ACTs for the first time?
A: “Actually get a good nights rest, eat breakfast in the morning and just breathe, take deep breathes, stretch before you take it. I know the ACTs are in a couple of weeks so if you can do any ACT prep type pf stuff that would be really good too.”

Q: Is there any websites you would suggest for the ACTs?
A: “Mrs. Foshe actually enrolled all of the Juniors on www.actstudent.org, also they have test booklets at Barnes and Noble.”

Q: What’s the best way to study to you?
A: “Little bits at a time, starting from as far out as you possibly can, so again we have a week until the ACTs but everybody knows that when your a Junior at dmps you take the ACTs in April so you can just start studying little bits at a time. You could take a practice test and see what you need to work on.”

Q: How much time do you think you should spend studying?
A: “I think you take the pre-test or the practice test so you know where you need help in the most, and just focus on those areas. Give yourself a week and take another practice test and then see where you need to go from there. But a couple hours a week when its far away and depending on what you need, you decide if you need to study more.”